Author's note: Sorry! This update is so late I cannot apologise enough. Between writer's block, the library being closed a lot and just a whole mess of stuff, this chapter is coming to you guys far later than it should, so I apologise! Thanks to all new favourites and follows, and thanks to Miss. Drake, Guest, Flowerchild23, Emzy2k11, sadlyhuman1997, N3ko8 and Mystic Vampyre for their great reviews. Anyway, apologies again for the long wait, hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Lost Boys, just my OCs.

The next week the store finally opened, and things were going fantastic on opening night. We had opened at around five for the first time and the store was already getting pretty crowded, music was flying off the shelves and people had even been in to ask if they could order guitars or put deposits down on the Fender guitars behind the counter.

I had been helping set the store up for most of the week during the day, Nick even put in an appearance or two to help out, which I was really glad for. I hadn't seen Paul since the first night we met and he helped out, but who knows, he might drop in. My eyes flicked around the small crowds of kids looking at the music and posters, and my eyes caught a familiar head of black and red spikes.

"Nick!" I called over the rock music playing through the speakers at the back; he spotted me and made his way over, glancing around in approval.

"Place looks good." He complimented as he came over, his friends stayed where they were and examined the shelves. I grinned and threw my arms around his shoulders.

"Thanks so much for helping. Sorting all the tapes and CDs would have taken me far longer if you hadn't dropped by." It was true, I had boxes upon boxes to help sort, and if Nick hadn't have helped I would have been tempted to just leave them in the boxes and let people sort them out themselves.

"It's no problem." He answered, his friend Zach came up behind him with a snort and clapped him on the shoulder.

"This place is totally lame." Zach sniggered; I raised an eyebrow and folded my arms.

"The only thing lame around here is that awful colouring job in your hair, what was the look you were going for? Skunk?" I asked, glancing up at the ugly platinum blonde streak down the middle of his Mohawk which had dark hair either side.

"Whatever, any money says this place is out of business by the end of the month." Zach shot back.

"Wanna bet, asshole?" I asked, stepping forward slightly with the intention to shove him. Nick's arm caught me around the waist.

"Leave it, Bryn." Nick warned, I gawked at him.

"Leave it? He swans in here in his tragic get-up and cheap hair and he calls this store lame?" I demanded, sure enough Zach raised a finger in warning.

"Watch it."

"Dude, let's just go." Nick suggested, Zach glared at me for a few seconds before nodding.

"Sounds like a plan, don't wanna stay in this dump any longer. Come on, guys." Zach called to the remaining guys and girls behind him. They all set the music they had been messing about with back, not too neatly I might add, and strutted out past us.

Nick watched Zach as he passed us before turning to me, "Pay no attention to him, he can be an asshole sometimes." I stepped back from where his arm and been around me.

"Yeah, and you can be real silent sometimes too. Why didn't you back me up? Me and you worked hard on this store a lot this week and he comes in here and walks all over it, and you just let him?" I demanded.

"What was I supposed to do?" Nick asked, I stared at him for a few seconds before shaking my head.

"You're supposed to back me up, but you just stood there. But you can do something right now, which is get the hell out and go hang out with Zach." I told him, Nick squared his jaw and went to answer back.

"Nick, you coming too?" Zach asked from the door, Nick glanced back at him and nodded.

"Be right there." He told him, he turned back to me, "See you around, Bryn."

I watched him leave with a frown; his friends could be real assholes sometimes. Nick could too, but I knew deep down he never meant it. He just fell in with the wrong crowd.

I sighed and decided not to let it get me down, so I went back and straightened up the tapes and CDs Nick's friends had knocked out of place. My dad promised a discount on anything I wanted, within reason of course, he knew I was liable to go nuts with that promise. I had my heart set on a Fender Jaguar, we had a blue one behind the counter but Dad said I could order a purple one if I wanted. I had an acoustic guitar at home I had learned to play well, but I've always wanted a Fender.

I realised I had been musing about the Jaguar a bit longer than necessary, and I had been holding a tape in my hands as if I was considering selling my soul to afford it. I was in the process of setting it back in its rightful place when a voice behind me startled me.

"Aw, I was hoping you were getting that as a gift to me." The tape almost jumped out of my hand as I jumped. I clapped a hand over my heart as I set it back and turned to come face to face with a familiar pair of clear blue eyes. Paul.

"You scared the life out of me!" I accused as I held my hand over my rapidly beating heart, he laughed loudly in triumph as he straightened up from where he had been hunched down to be at the same eye-level as me.

"Sorry, shorty." He apologised, a grin crept onto my face and I punched him on the arm.

"Stop calling me shorty!"

"Why not, shorty? It suits you." He said and patted the top of my head, how come every time I ran into him, I wasn't wearing my boots?

"I will find a nickname for you then, and I will use it all the time." I threatened, he shrugged with a smile.

"Wouldn't bother me, it'd be like we were a couple, cute nicknames and everything." He teased and touched my chin before looking around the store. I was grateful he was distracted, because his statement did cause a bit of a blush to creep up.

"What do you think?" I asked as I watched him glance around the store.

"It's awesome; it definitely is the best music store I've been to. All thanks to my brilliant artistic skills, of course." He boasted, I laughed as I looked around the walls we painted.

"You definitely helped out a lot, I'll have to give you some free music to pay you back." I offered, he considered it for a second before an idea seemed to hit him.

"Tell you what, I know just how you can repay me." He said, my eyebrows rose in question, "Come hang out with me and my friends." He said.

I grimaced as I took note of all the people in the store, "I don't know, I might need to stay here and help my folks out."

"Aw, come on." He pleaded and took my hands, "I've been tellin' them all week I was gonna introduce you, and I promise we will be frequent customers at the shop."

I considered the offer before nodding, "Sounds alright, I'll just go tell my parents I'll be out for a while." I said, he followed me up to the front and I went to the counter where my mom and dad stood.

"Mom, Dad? This is Paul, remember the guy that helped me paint in here last week?" I asked, the both nodded and smiled at Paul who gave an easy wave, "I'm gonna hang out with him for a while, is that alright?"

My dad glanced between the two of us before smiling, "Sure, just be back before closing so we can give you a lift home, Bryn." He told me.

"Sure thing, bye!" I said as I pulled Paul out of the store.

"So where have you been hiding all week?" Paul asked as he led me down the boardwalk.

"Just around, I was helping out getting things sorted during the day but we mostly stayed home at night, setting up a music store takes a lot of work."

"Well it looks great." Paul said, and I smiled at him, my mood already lifted from my slight argument with Nick earlier.

"So where are your friends?" I asked with a glance around, Paul looked around a bit before heading further into the crowd down the narrow street, linking his hand with mine so he wouldn't lose me.

"They'll probably just be hanging around, we'll find them." He said confidently before nodding over to the carousel, "Found them." He pulled my hand and we finally got out of the crowd to the more open space where the rides were. I kept my hand in his as we crossed over to the carousel. He pulled me to the side of the carousel, out of sight from the obviously-bored guy that ran the ride; he wasn't even glancing up so it was easy for us to get to the edge of the moving ride.

"Do we just get on?" I asked, eyeing the moving ride with apprehension. I was about to make a jump for it when Paul's hands went under my arms and lifted me with ease. He hopped on behind me with a grin.

"You looked like you needed help, shorty." He teased; I rolled my eyes and hopped up onto a horse that was without a rider in an effort to show I wasn't completely helpless. Paul leant on the bar beside the horse and waved someone over.

I looked to see three guys making their way around the carousel, and almost instantly I knew by their clothes and how they carried themselves that they were Paul's friends he had told me about. They walked confidently like he did, weaving easily through the horses as they came over.

My attention was pulled to the one in front, a guy with a platinum blonde mullet and long black trench coat. He spotted Paul and greeted him with a nod before his eyes settled on me where I sat on the horse. A teasing smirk pulled at one corner of his mouth as he came to stop beside Paul.

"You must be Bryn." My eyebrows raised at the statement and I hopped off the horse to say hello, although I regretted it as I realised another thing Paul's friends had in common with him was height. The blonde smiled down at me.

"Good guess, you must be…" I trailed off, the names from the other night swam in a haze fog through my head and I tried to pick one out, but there wasn't one jumping out at me that suited him.

"David." He said, extending a hand clad in leather into the space between us. Now that he said it, the name suited him perfectly. I shook his head as firmly as I could before I strained to look over his shoulder. Sure enough another guy with blonde curls stepped out from behind David, onto the edge of the ride as he waved.

"I'm Marko." He introduced, and yet again the name seemed to fit him well.

"Bryn. Cool jacket." I complimented, my eyes immediately drawn to the patchwork masterpiece he wore. It looked like it took some serious work, and all of a sudden the personalised pieces of clothing I had tweaked with my own designs and accessories completely paled in comparison.

"Thanks." He said, fixing the jacket slightly with a grin that told me he was very proud of the jacket. So he should be, it looked amazing.

The ride came to a stop and we were interrupted from doing any further introductions as the guy running the ride scoffed as we came to stop in front of him.

"You guys again, I told you, you aren't allowed on the ride if you don't pay." He said in exasperation. David smirked in the most unapologetic way before he waved us off. Paul, Marko and David hopped off with ease and I held the bar to step down as more people got on for their turn.

Thankfully I made it without tripping as people crowded to get onto the horses, I side-stepped a girl pulling her boyfriend onto it against his will, bumping shoulders with a person to my left as I did so. Well my shoulder bumped their elbow, and I knew immediately they were tall, so I glanced up to apologise. And in doing so met the dark eyes of the remaining friend I hadn't been introduced to. And boy for someone I didn't know, he sure looked familiar. And then it hit me.

"Did I meet you on the beach the other night?" I asked, stopping on the spot, he did the same and nodded down at me.

"You're the girl that didn't want sand in her boots." He stated, I laughed in embarrassment at what I must have looked like when he saw me. And this time when one side of his mouth lifted it was much more visible thanks to the light bulbs around the carousel. In the light given off I could see now underneath the dark was an unbelievably handsome face with darker skin than the rest of his friends. Who were all handsome as well, plain as day, but this guy was another kind of handsome entirely. I think a look at this guy would cause the phrase "tall, dark and handsome" to pop into anyone's mind.

"Yeah, thanks for the scarf and for the help, sand in my boots walking home would have been a nightmare. I didn't realise till I was leaving that I didn't ask your name, I'm Bryn." I introduced, stretching my hand out. I didn't shake hands normally unless someone else did it when meeting me, but my hand moved of its own accord.

"Dwayne." He answered and the name snapped back from when I met Paul, it figures that the last guy I meet is the one I would have been most likely to remember the name of. His hand slipped into mine which felt instantly tiny in his much larger one, I tried to ignore the tingling in my skin as our hands made contact.

"Hey, you to coming or what?" My head whipped round at the sound of David's voice, and I was embarrassed to see he, Paul and Marko had been watching with curiosity as I introduced myself to Dwayne. Which reminded me, I was still holding his hand.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and dropped my hand from his, hurrying to catch up with the others to avoid making a fool of myself more than I probably already had. Even as I walked quickly over, Dwayne kept up easily with strides that must have each been equal to three of mine.

"Where are we going?" I asked Paul as I caught up to him, winding my arm through his to try and keep up with him and his friends as we started walking.

"Going to grab some food, you like Chinese, right?"

I nodded, "Sure, everyone loves Chinese." It was pretty hard not to.

"Alright!" Paul said with enthusiasm and clapped Marko on the shoulder, who returned to gesture with equal enthusiasm. It eventually escalated until they were playfully shoving each other as they walked along. I crossed behind them and chose to stand a bit away to avoid getting hit, which coincidentally landed me right back beside Dwayne.

"Are they always like this?" I asked David and Dwayne, watching with a smile as Paul and Marko hurried ahead like two crazy kids with insane sugar rushes.

"Every damn night." David answered with a smirk, and Dwayne nodded in agreement. Eventually Paul and Marko calmed down enough to walk alongside us as we entered the small Chinese restaurant on the boardwalk, Chopstix. Mom and dad always got take-out from here but we rarely ate in the restaurant.

I followed the guys to a table down at the back; the restaurant was busy enough with crowds of friends and families in for food. I noticed at least each table glance up at the boys as they walked, most with a mix of curiosity and cautiousness. Understandable of course, it would be hard not to get intimidated by four tall guys dressed in dark yet striking clothes. I was easily lost where I walked behind Paul and in front of Marko.

Marko got sent up for food, and the rest of the guys set about lounging in the chairs down at the back, I leant against the wall beside my chair and silently took in the three remaining guys now that the lighting meant I wasn't just taking in their clothes and hairstyles, their features were far better visible.

David looked to be the oldest, with Dwayne a close second. I pegged Marko as the youngest judging by his youthful face, and Paul seemed to fit somewhere in the middle.

I guess they were all at least nineteen to twenty, David could maybe even pass for twenty-one. He had blue eyes like Paul's, but his were a lot more piercing. The slight stubble around his jaw might be one of the reasons he appeared oldest, but I also got the sense he was the leader of the group. They all seemed to follow his lead without question, so naturally I assumed he was the oldest.

Paul and Marko both seemed pretty energetic and crazy, so I assumed them two to be the youngest in the group. Marko was chatting up the young girl behind the counter, and judging by her bashful grin and the fact she flipped her hair at least twice in ten seconds, he was pretty good at it. Besides the obviously amazing jacket he had long curls that tumbled down his back, even longer than Paul's hair, which was dishevelled and crazy as ever.

I permitted a glance at Dwayne, noticing for the first time he had a leopard on the right sleeve of his jacket, the claws it scratched out with that matched its sharp, exposed teeth dug into the side of his jacket up where his chest was. And then of course it registered he wasn't wearing a shirt. Just a necklace with different materials woven to make a chain that had a few charms hanging off it. I forced my eyes to look away for fear my glance would turn into an outright stare. Unfortunately I happened to catch his eyes as I moved my eyes in the hopes of focusing on something else, but I was immediately transfixed by how dark they were. They actually verged on black they were that dark, and seemed so mysterious even at a glance I wanted to know what was on his mind.

I forced my eyes to focus on the menu at my elbow, scanning the options for different dishes as I prayed the food would come quickly so I could have a more believable distraction.

"- Isn't that right, Bryn?" It took a second for the end of Paul's sentence to register, and I glanced up to see he and David must have been talking about something, they both smiled at my clueless face.

"Huh?" I asked, I hadn't heard a single thing they were saying.

Paul snickered, "David and I were talking about the store, David doesn't believe it's as good as I said it was, but I told him it rocks! Doesn't it?" he asked, Marko came to sit down from where he had finally ordered the food to sit between Paul and I.

"What'd I miss?" he asked.

"Besides the turn of the century because you were taking to that waitress for so long?" David asked sarcastically, I giggled and David smirked before gesturing to me.

"Bryn was just about to tell us about the new music store her parents opened? The one Paul came back from painting looking like a rainbow jig-saw puzzle?" David prompted.

"Oh yeah!" Marko answered, and suddenly all eyes were on me to continue.

"Uh, yeah, it just opened tonight, we've been working on it during the day for about a week now. The guys working on it got everything set up real quick so we opened tonight and it's going well. We've got orders for different guitars and stuff as well, the Fenders behind the counter are really popular." I explained, David nodded in approval.

"Sounds good, we'll be sure to drop by." Yep, definitely the leader.

"So what kind of music do you guys sell?" Marko asked.

I grinned, "Good music."

"Hell yeah, this girl's got good taste." Paul added in, I smiled and David sat back in his chair and folded his arms.

"In that case, why doesn't she come with us to the concert tomorrow night?" David asked, his statement was met with nods of approval and a hoot from Paul. I hadn't really thought about the concert tomorrow night, there was one almost every weekend now because the summer holidays were a great time to hang out on the boardwalk, and kids crowded every concert they could get to.

I usually went to concerts with Nick, but right now that wasn't an idea I was fond of, so I nodded.

"Love to." I grinned, just then the waitress came over and set various containers of food down on the table along with chopsticks and glasses, she went back to the counter and grabbed the pitcher of Coke and returned with it to set it in the middle.

"Anything else?" the waitress asked, more to Marko than anyone else at the table. He shook his head with a grin as he chewed his thumbnail and she flipped her hair before turning back to the counter, making sure to sway her hips as she did so. I looked around the containers of food not unlike the takeout boxes except they were wider and waited until the guys had all picked one before I took one of the remaining ones, opening it to see rice inside. This was good, I was worried I'd pick something I didn't like, I was never great at stomaching food I didn't like. Which often meant we got take-out on the nights my mom had decided to experiment in the kitchen and ended up serving something that tasted like you polished your shoes with it rather than ate it.

I grabbed the curry sauce and mixed the rice in before I got stuck into eating; I hadn't got much at dinner because I was too excited about the store opening. Marko and Paul talked more about the store and the different guitars we had, Paul actually seemed to be considering buying one for himself, but I guessed I'd be giving him lessons how to play it. Not that I minded in the least.

I nodded along as he and Marko talked about the music they like, my hand reached out for the pitcher of coke to pour a glass, but it ended up coming to rest on Dwayne's hand that had gotten to it before me.

"Shoot, sorry." I apologised as I pulled my hand back and waited for him to finish pouring a glass. Nice enough of him, he filled mine when he was done before setting the pitcher back in the middle. A wise move, he had probably seen me drop rice from my chopsticks enough that he guessed I wasn't the best person to struggle with a heavy pitcher.

"Thanks." I smiled, and had to tear my eyes away when he returned the gesture.

"Who's playing at the concert tomorrow night?" I asked as I picked up my glass, feeling rude that he was the one I had made the least conversation with. I had even had a brief discussion with David about how the store had been painted because he had wondered what it looked like upon seeing the rainbows on Paul's arms and the fact he had silver hands. Dwayne had been mostly silent through the meal.

"No idea, some band from Chicago. We decided to go along and check it out." Dwayne shrugged; most bands that passed through here were from other cities and just decided to jam on the boardwalk. There was always a good chance to gain fans, and it didn't exactly hinder their popularity to play on the bandstand where everyone and anyone would crowd to hear good music.

"Cool." I answered, wondering what to say next. It was a rare I would ever be lost for words.

"Are you in a band?" Dwayne asked, and I was grateful one of us had at least come up with something.

I cleared my throat after a sip of coke and laughed, "I wish. I do have a dream to be in one of those amazing bands that sells out venues and everyone wants to see. Travel the world and play for millions of fans. But I guess any girl who grew up with as much music as I did would have that dream." Dwayne nodded in agreement and I found myself continuing, "My dad played in a band with his friends when they were younger, it was actually at one of their shows that my dad met my mom. She had been working at the bar and they got talking after he sang. The band broke up a few years later but they both said they'd find a job to do with music, so they started saving for a music store. Sorry, I'm rambling." I apologised, a simple yes or no would have probably been enough of an answer.

"Must be nice, having parents who share the same interests as you." He continued, oh good, I didn't bore him to tears with my parents' love story.

"It is, they're cool. I'm sure if I ever wanted to start a band they'd be alright with it, it would be pretty hypocritical for them to be against it."

Dwayne gave a deep chuckle at that, "That it would. Do you play any instruments?"

I nodded, "Acoustic guitar, but I'm getting a Fender Jaguar soon, hopefully."

He smiled and lapsed back into silence as he finished his food, but I was glad to have gotten some conversation out of him. Soon enough the waitress came to clear the table, and I stood up and shrugged my jacket on.

"I better get back down, the store will be closing." I said to Paul, the rest of the guys stood up to leave as well. The boardwalk was thankfully less crowded than they had been earlier and I was thankful I wouldn't have that much bother getting back to the store.

"Aw, and I was all for getting you back on the bike tonight." Paul pouted; I chuckled and shook my head.

"Maybe another night, you could probably give me a lift home after the concert tomorrow night?" I suggested.

He clapped my shoulder lightly, "You bet!"

I returned the gesture and waved to the guys, "Thanks for the good, guys, see you tomorrow night." I grinned; they all either waved or nodded before heading towards where their bikes were. Paul glanced back to wave, and I stopped to return it. I had meant to turn and walk the opposite way when Dwayne glanced back, and I felt myself rooted to the spot as his eyes held mine for a few seconds before he turned to follow the rest of the guys.